


Chatterbox

by sneetchstar



Series: Arya x Gendry Week 2020 [3]
Category: A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin, Game of Thrones (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Drunk Gendry Waters, F/M, axg week 2020
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-05
Updated: 2020-08-05
Packaged: 2021-03-05 20:07:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,636
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25721050
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sneetchstar/pseuds/sneetchstar
Summary: Gendry goes out with the lads for Theon's bachelor party and Arya learns something surprising about her boyfriend
Relationships: Arya Stark/Gendry Waters
Series: Arya x Gendry Week 2020 [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1862086
Comments: 23
Kudos: 199





	Chatterbox

**Author's Note:**

> Third prompt for Arya x Gendry Week 2020: Let's Get Drunk

“Let’s get druuuuuuunnnnnk!” The shout comes from Theon as he comes crashing into Gendry’s apartment. He is followed by Podrick, Jon, and Robb, who smacks him on the back of the head.

“Settle down, twat. We’ve all had alcohol before,” he says with a sigh.

“Well, all except Jon,” Pod comments with a laugh.

Jon, their perpetual designated driver who has never touched alcohol, simply shrugs. “I still wouldn’t yell about it like a tosser,” he says.

“You ready?” Robb asks, looking at Gendry and Hot Pie. “Hey, Arya,” he says on seeing his youngest sister walk into the living room, a bowl of ice cream in her hand.

“You idiots ready to go out and be idiots?” she asks, sitting beside Gendry. “Where’s Bran?”

“He’s in the van,” Jon says. “He said there was no point in going through the work of getting him up here, so he’d wait.”

“Take care of him tonight,” Arya says. “You know how he gets when he’s drunk.”

“How does he get when he’s drunk?” Hot Pie asks. He became associated with the Starks about 5 months ago, shortly after his best friend Gendry started dating Arya, and hasn’t truly experienced Drunken Stark Shenanigans. Yet.

“One time he forgot he can’t walk,” Theon says. “And then another time he was offering free rides to girls in short skirts. On his lap.”

“And then there was the time he tried to ride Summer,” Robb adds. “Thankfully, that was at home, but Mum was livid.”

“I’m sorry I asked,” Hot Pie replies.

“Eventually one of us just disconnects the battery on his chair and then he can’t go anywhere,” Robb explains.

“Seems a bit harsh,” Hot Pie says.

“You’ve obviously never seen Bran drunk,” Jon responds. His phone pings. “And that will be him,” he says, pulling his phone out of his pocket. He reads the text. “He says ‘Stop talking about me and get your arses down here.’ Right creepy, he is.”

“That’s our Bran,” Arya says. She lifts her chin to meet Gendry’s descending face as he leans down to kiss her goodbye. “Be good,” she murmurs.

“You be good,” he counters, pecks her lips once more, then walks to the door with the others.

“Theon, behave yourself or Sansa will hear about everything and then she might not marry you next week,” Arya calls.

“Pah,” Theon dismisses with a wave of his hand. As they file out the door, Arya hears him ask Pod, “Do you think she would really call off the wedding?”

xXx

Arya is pleasantly dozing on the couch with the Food Network on for company when she is startled awake by her phone.

She groggily reaches for it and sees Jon has texted her.

_J: Come get your man. He’s completely pissed and driving us all crazy._

She stares at the message, reading it a few times. She’s still a little drowsy, but surely Jon can’t have meant this message for her.

_A: I think you texted the wrong person. This is Arya._

_J: No I definitely texted the right person._

She furrows her brows. She’s trying to think of times she’s seen Gendry drink, and if she’s ever seen him truly drunk.

She can’t even imagine what he would be doing that would be driving them crazy. Hot Pie, yes. Theon, most definitely. Even Robb has his moments. But Gendry?

_A: Dare I ask?_

_J: Just come get him. We’re at the Iron Throne._

_A: Fine._

She hauls herself off the couch, goes to the bathroom, and then shoves her feet into a pair of flip-flops and shuffles out of Gendry’s flat in a pair of shorts covered in yellow ducks and one of Gendry’s t-shirts. She is not getting dressed for this.

Ten minutes later, she pulls up to the pub and texts Jon that she’s there and they have to bring him out because she’s not going in.

_J: Be right out._

Arya leans her head back against the headrest, still trying to puzzle together what her quiet but generally a little grumpy boyfriend could be doing that they found so irritating.

Was he picking fights with people? Challenging other patrons to arm wrestling competitions? Being silent and surly and not talking to anyone?

She gets her answer a minute later when she sees Jon and Hot Pie leading Gendry out. Gendry appears to be talking to them.

A lot.

She watches with interest as Hot Pie opens the car door and Jon bundles Gendry inside.

“…no, really, if you adjust the levels of chromium in the alloy—”

“Gendry, look who’s here,” Jon says, his tone similar to one a person would use when addressing a small child or a scared dog.

Gendry turns his head – well, it’s more of a flop than a turn – and his face lights up when he sees Arya giving him a bemused expression.

“Arya!” he brightly exclaims. “Lads, Arya’s here!” he says to Jon and Hot Pie.

“Yes, she’s here to take you home,” Hot Pie says. Then he immediately closes the car door.

“Hi Arya,” Gendry says, smiling sweetly at her.

“Hi Gendry,” she replies, shifting the car into gear.

“I had fun with the lads. Hot Pie and Podrick get along really well. It’s great to see Hot Pie out and making new friends. He spends far too much time with food – I mean he’s really good at it – but he needs to get out and be with people more or he’ll get weird. Weirder than he already is, I mean.” He pauses for just a second and looks at her. “Can we get food? I think I want some food.”

“I think food would be a good idea,” she answers, trying not to laugh at how completely ridiculous he is in this state. She has never heard him say so much in one go before, and she has a feeling he’s not done. “What would you like?” she asks.

“I could literally eat anything right now,” he answers. “I’d take off my shoe and gnaw on the leather like jerky if it came down to it. Oh! Casita de Taco! I could _use_ a taco… oh, they’re closed. Why are they closed?” He looks forlornly out the window as they drive past the fast food taco place. Then he perks up again as he spots Blackwater Burgers ahead. “Oh! Oh! Go there! They’re definitely still open! They don’t close till 2.”

Arya can no longer hold her laughter, but Gendry doesn’t even notice because he is far too enamored with the prospect of food.

“What do you want?” she asks, pulling into the drive-thru lane.

“Oh… um…” he exhales, vibrating his lips as he does so. “Food.”

“What kind of food? Or should I pick something for you?”

“Yes, you pick. You’re so smart, Arya, do you know that? I really love how smart you are. You always know what to do and say and how to make me feel like I’m important… and special… and…” He trails off, sniffling, growing overcome with emotion. “I want a fried chicken sandwich and waffle fries and a chocolate shake,” he says a moment later.

She smiles and shakes her head as she pulls up to the speaker.

_“Thank you for choosing Blackwater Burgers, would you like to try our bacon mushroom swiss double cheeseburger?”_

She glances at Gendry, not sure how capricious he might be in this state. He shakes his head. “Chicken sammich.”

“No thank you, I’d like a… number six meal, no pickles on the sandwich but add cheese, and waffle fries instead of regular. And a chocolate shake for the drink, please,” she says.

 _“Number six, no pickle, add cheese, sub waffle and chocolate shake. Will that be all?”_ the voice asks.

“Yep.”

_“Please pull around to the first window.”_

As they wait behind another car, Gendry flops his head to the side again. “See? You knew ’zactly how I wanted my sam… sand… food,” he says.

She puzzles at him, wondering if it is possible for him to be getting more drunk since she picked him up, because now his chattering has become a little sloppy. “Are you tired, Love?” she asks, reaching out to smooth his hair along his brow.

“Mmm-hmm,” he says, nodding and closing his eyes. “But ’m hungry too. When is my food coming?”

“I’m paying for it now,” she answers as she pulls up to the window and hands the girl her card.

The other car drives off so they don’t have to wait to approach the next window, and his food is unceremoniously thrust out at Arya by a surly young man with a spotty face and no discernable muscle tone.

“Thank you,” she sweetly says, taking the food and handing Gendry the bag. She sets the shake in the cupholder, then puts the straw into it for him before driving off.

The rest of the drive to his apartment is quiet, but only because Gendry is busy shoving waffle fries into his mouth.

xXx

“That was the best chicken sandwich I’ve ever had. Don’t tell Hot Pie though because he might start crying,” Gendry says, now seated on the couch in his apartment, facing the coffee table. The crumpled paper is all that remains of his sandwich (the fries never made it home), and his shake is mostly gone.

He leans back, closes his eyes, and just when Arya thinks he has fallen asleep, he starts talking again.

“I was telling Jon about the new spectrometer we got at work this week,” he says, opening his eyes and sitting up. Arya looks up from her phone, giving him her attention. She has already opened the camera and presses the button to start taking video. She’s not even hiding the fact that she’s filming him, but he doesn’t notice. “I don’t think he was very impressed, but it’s _so_ cool,” he says. “It’s actually _smaller_ than the old one, but it does more things. Oh, I should say it’s a mass spectrometer. There are different kinds of spectrometers, you know. Did you know that?”

“No, I didn’t,” she answers, once again trying not to giggle at him.

“Yeah,” he says, launching into his explanation, hands expressively gesturing the whole time. “There are optical absorption spectrometers, optical emission spectrometers, electron spectrometers, mass spectrometers, time-of-flight spectrometers, and magnetic spectrometers. For metallurgy, we use mass spectrometers to analyze the different elements in various alloys. We take a sample of the metal and machine the surface with a lathe so it’s nice and smooth and exposed. Then it goes into the receptacle and the spectrometer ionizes a small section of the metal by bombarding it with ions. It makes a loud buzzing sound when it does this, like _ehhhhhhhh ehhhhhhhhhh ehhhh ehhhhhhhhhh_. When we pull the sample out, it has a circle on the surface that almost looks like a cigarette burn but it isn’t one because it wasn’t bombarded with a lit cigarette, it was bombarded with ions. Then we get a readout of the results and…” he pauses a second, his brows furrowing. “Are you taking video of me?”

“Yep.”

Much to Arya’s surprise, Gendry’s face breaks into a broad grin and he waves at the camera. “Hiii, Arya, my lovely,” he says, looking positively moony. “I like talking to you,” he continues. “You’re, like, the only person I _like_ to talk to. You’re my favorite person in the whole wide world.”

“You’re my favorite, too,” she says.

“I am? Really?” he asks, getting all soft and sloppy again. “But I’m always so grumpy and I _never_ talk and I can be an asshole and I’m rude to people… but not to you I’m not. Maybe that’s why I’m your favorite. Because you know I’ll never be a grumpy rude asshole to you.” He flops back on the couch.

“I think it’s time for bed, Gendry,” Arya says.

“Mmkay,” he agrees, closing his eyes. She presses the stop button on her phone to stop filming.

“Not here, Stupid,” she fondly says, standing and pocketing her phone. She reaches for his hands and pulls him to his feet. “Come on then.”

“You’re really strong,” he says, swaying slightly as he looks down at her.

“Yes. Can you walk?” she asks.

“Yeah,” he answers, shuffling sock-footed back to his room. When they pass the bathroom, he detours there. “I gotta piss. And brush my teeth.”

“Okay. I’ll wait here,” she says, standing just outside the bathroom door.

After a brief assist with the toothpaste from Arya, Gendry resumes his journey down the hall to his bedroom, where he immediately flops face-down on the bed.

Arya is thankful she had the foresight to pull the covers back earlier, but the fact that he’s lying sideways across the bed might be a bit of a problem. Still, she sighs and reaches down to pull his socks off.

“Flip over,” she says, pushing his shoulder.

He groans and flips, slinging his arm over his eyes. “It’s too bright in here,” he complains.

“It is not. You’re just drunk,” she replies, unbuckling his belt and opening his jeans. “Pick up your butt,” she orders, and he does, allowing her to pull his jeans down and off.

“Mmm, I like where this is going,” he mumbles.

“You’re in no state,” she says, huffing a small laugh as she starts on the buttons of his shirt, grateful she doesn’t have to pull it over his head. “Get on the bed right, please, or I’ll have to sleep on the couch.”

She knew that would do the trick. He immediately scoots over to one side with his head on the pillow. She gets his shirt out from under him as he moves, having already pulled his arms out of the sleeves.

“Where are you going?” he asks, cracking an eye open. “I moved, so you don’t have to go…” He’s very nearly whining now.

“I also have to piss and brush my teeth,” she says. “I’ll be right back.”

“Mmkay.”

She keeps her phone with her and texts Jon.

_A: He is a chatty thing, isn’t he? It’s like the alcohol loosens all the thoughts he keeps locked inside his head when he’s sober._

Jon texts her back rather quickly, and she reads it with her toothbrush in her mouth.

_J: Did he tell you about the spectrometer?_

Arya laughs.

_A: Of course he did. He seems very excited about it. I was videoing him for evidence._

_J: Good. We never got a chance to._

_A: Going to bed._

_J: Goodnight, little sister_

She smiles and heads back to Gendry’s room. After plugging both their phones in, she lies down beside him. He appears to already be asleep.

But when she settles in, he pulls her back against him and buries his nose in her hair, just like every other time they sleep together.

“Thank you,” he says. “For coming to get me and buying me a chicken sammich. You’re the best.”

“I know,” she answers with a smile, and he kisses the crown of her head.

She feels his body relaxing behind her, and he goes still and quiet for a minute. Then, in the still and dark, she hears a soft, “I love you.” It’s quiet, little more than a sigh, but Arya hears it and it takes her breath away. He’s never said it before. Neither has she, and she doesn’t even know if he’ll remember it in the morning, but she has to reply.

“I love you, too,” she whispers, not sure if he was even awake when he said it, not sure if he heard her answer him in kind.

But then his arm around her tightens just a little, and she thinks he might have heard her after all.

**Author's Note:**

> Drunk!Gendry is loosely based on my brother-in-law after he returned from a bachelor party and my sister discovered that her normally very taciturn husband (the man talks mainly in one-word sentences) simply does not shut up when he's drunk. Sadly, this was in like 1995 or thereabouts, so there is no video footage.


End file.
